Roku, which sells the most popular brand of streaming media players in the U.S., is now aiming to carve out a niche for itself as the voice control platform for home entertainment. Today, Roku is unveiling a licensing program for manufacturing partners that include reference designs for smart speakers, smart soundbars, surround sound and multi-home audio systems that use new Roku Connect… Read More
03
Jan
2018
Roku joins the voice computing market with smart soundbars, speakers and more built by partners
Roku, which sells the most popular brand of streaming media players in the U.S., is now aiming to carve out a niche for itself as the voice control platform for home entertainment. Today, Roku is unveiling a licensing program for manufacturing partners that include reference designs for smart speakers, smart soundbars, surround sound and multi-home audio systems that use new Roku Connect… Read More
It appears that YouTube is more responsible for the first crisis of the year on its video platform than was initially thought. Yesterday, the internet was rightly outraged by news that YouTube star Logan Paul, who has 15 million subscribers and is part of YouTube’s Red subscription service, posted and later deleted a video that included extensive footage of a suicide victim filmed… 
A year ago, Didi made a big move into Brazil when it laid down over $100 million to take a stake in 99, a local competitor to Uber in the app-based ride hailing market. Now, on the heels of getting a massive $4 billion investment of its own, it appears that Didi is looking to double down the Latin American region. According to several local reports, Didi is buying up 100 percent of the… 
Technology innovation and entrepreneurial genius exists across the globe. That’s why in 2017 TechCrunch took the Startup Battlefield to Africa, Australia, Europe, and of course San Francisco. In 2018, we’re heading to Dubai — a moonshot city in the making — and joining forces with the UAE’s new innovation hub, Area 2071. We’re looking for 15 of the… 
The proposed acquisition of global payment service MoneyGram by Alibaba’s Ant Financial is off after the U.S. government blocked the $1.2 billion deal.
Ant Financial, the Alibaba affiliate which controls Alipay — China’s top mobile wallet — and other financial services, announced a deal to buy Nasdaq-listed MoneyGram in April 2017 after it beat off a rival bid from… 
Machine learning systems are very capable, but they aren’t exactly smart. They lack common sense. Taking advantage of that fact, researchers have created a wonderful attack on image recognition systems that uses specially-printed stickers that are so interesting to the AI that it completely fails to see anything else. Why do I get the feeling these may soon be popular accessories? 
Samsung’s Creative Lab is one of the more entertaining additions to CES in the last several years. Deemed C-Lab for short, the department is a sort of in-house accelerator, where Samsung employees can build and spin off startups, all while leveraging the electronics giants’ seemingly bottomless resources. 
You may think, from the pomp accompanying the FCC’s vote in December to repeal net neutrality, that the deed was done. Not so. In fact, the order hasn’t even reached its final form: the Commission is still working on it. While it may be frustrating, this is business as usual for regulations like this, and concerned advocates should conserve their outrage for when it’s… 
Spotify is facing a $1.6 billion lawsuit from Wixen Music Publishing, the publisher that represents artists like Tom Petty, Missy Elliot, Stevie Nicks and Neil Young, The Hollywood Reporter first reported. The suit, filed December 29, alleges copyright infringement, specifically alleging Spotify is using thousands of its songs without a proper license.